Third Tanker Sends Distress Signal After Oil Spill Off Russia’s Black Sea Coast
Two oil tankers badly damaged by weekend storms have emerged within “tens of kilometers” of Russia’s Black Sea coast, a regional official said Tuesday and state media said a third tanker is now in trouble.
TASS said that the third tanker sent a distress signal, but its hull remains intact, with no oil leaks, and its crew unharmed.
The Russian news agency RIA Novosti said the tanker Volgunft 109 was safely anchored near the Caucasian port of Kerch in the Kerch Strait, which stretches between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
The first ship, Volgunft 212, broke into two parts in the strait on Sunday. The second ship, Volgunft 239, ran aground 80 meters (87 yards) offshore near the port of Taman on the eastern side of the strait. The two ships, both more than 50 years old, were carrying about 9,200 tonnes (62,000 barrels) of petroleum products, TASS reported, raising concerns that they could become one of the biggest environmental disasters the country has suffered in years.
The third tanker was built in 1973 and belongs to the same old fleet, according to a certificate seen by Reuters. Veniamin Kondratiev, governor of the southern Krasnodar region, said fuel oil was found on the coast between Temryuk and Anapa. “This morning, a fuel leak was discovered while monitoring the coast. Oil products were washed up several dozen kilometres away,” he added.
Authorities said a local state of emergency had been declared in four settlements in the Temryuk region and a village in the Anapa region because of the spill on the coast.
A video posted by the Red Star TV channel showed a black, oily substance on the coast of Anapa and tar stains on a beach dotted with tree branches.
The nearby Kerch Strait, which separates Russia’s Krasnodar region from the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Crimea in 2014, is an important area for migrating dolphins and other marine mammals, the TASS news agency quoted a scientist. “It can be said that they have reached a critical place,” said Dmitry Glazov of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution.
A video by state television Vesti showed several birds covered in oil flapping their wings and struggling to fly. Russia’s main channel for exporting grain and fuel products is the Kerch Strait.
Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said on Monday that fuel had leaked into the sea, but the extent of the leak remained unclear.
Natural Resources and Environment Minister Alexander Kozlov said some of the fuel may have sunk to the bottom of the sea due to the cold.
One crew member on the Volgoneft 212 died in the accident on Sunday, while all 14 passengers on the Volgoneft 239 were rescued.
